


Unreality

by ClothesBeam



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Horror, Necrophilia, Other, Suspense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 01:13:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7199450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClothesBeam/pseuds/ClothesBeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Megatron doesn’t have the time or patience to deal with jumpy crew members’ complaints about the morgue being "haunted", so he sends Nightbeat to find the actual, probably entirely reasonable, explanation. However, their resident conspiracy debunker digs up something much worse than a ghoul.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unreality

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT: In case you missed it, this contains references to robot necrophilia. The purpose of this story is to squick, and it contains other stuff and characters I haven’t tagged because it would ruin whatever suspense I managed to create.
> 
> Proceed at your own risk!

Nightbeat tapped his foot as he waited for the elevator to take him down to the bottom floor of the Lost Light. It was creepy and dark since there was basically only the waste disposal, fuel and oil reservoirs, supply storage, and the morgue, down here. The more imaginative mechs who worked security rotations swapped countless stories and rumours about this place.

Most of the mysteries were easy to explain away, even for those who didn’t have Nightbeat’s attention to detail and rational reasoning ability. For example, the screams of the dying that Atomiser had claimed he’d heard last week had simply been a poorly maintained energon pipe making odd noises.

However, there was a new story going around. Apparently the morgue was haunted. Nightbeat would have rolled his optics and chalked it up to natural psychological projections onto places that contained the dead, but then he’d remembered that there _had_ been something real down here at one point. This ship had actually held a real Sparkeater not that long ago. The Lost Light itself was a mystery just waiting to be solved, when he thought about it.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. As he stepped outside, Nightbeat was greeted by the sound of Atomiser’s dead mech. He moved down the main corridor and took note of everything he passed on his way to the morgue, but so far nothing was out of the ordinary. He turned right and continued on his way down a smaller corridor, keeping his optics on the door at the end that led to the morgue itself.

Nightbeat paused when he thought he heard something, mostly to prevent his footsteps from drowning it out. He listened hard, and decided it might have been someone uttering a small ‘oh.’ Were one of the medics or scientists down here working on something? He supposed they could be double checking an autopsy or something.

Nightbeat continued forward more carefully and more slowly than before, not wanting to drown out any more sounds that might give him a clue into what was going on in there. He was about halfway down the corridor when he heard more talking, louder this time.

“Oh, I’ve missed you so much…”

Nightbeat froze again when he recognised the voice that belonged to the other half of the ship’s captain. From the tone, he could have been with a lover. But maybe he’d simply had a relationship behind closed doors with one of the crew members they’d lost? While they were travelling through space, the room _would_ basically be their grave…

“But I see you’re having trouble getting it up again.”

Ok, scratch that theory. Nightbeat wasn’t about to start judging mechs for their fetishes, (though analysing the reason behind them would always be on the table) but it really wasn’t safe or hygienic to bang in a room full of corpses, no matter how well they were stored.

He let out a soft sigh and continued walking forward when he realised he would have to be the one to tell them off. After all, Megatron would probably just send him back down here after saying he didn’t have time to deal with this kind of nonsense. Nightbeat moved slowly, hoping one of them would chicken out or change their mind before he could barge inside.

“What’s the matter, you having trouble lubricating up as well?” Rodimus asked. After a few beats of silence he laughed softly. “No, no, it’s fine. I brought something to help us out there.”

Nightbeat slowed almost to a halt once again when he realised something wasn’t quite right. Even though he could hear Rodimus speaking quietly, he hadn’t heard a thing from whatever poor sap had been caught up in all of this. (He had no doubts that Rodimus was the instigator, no matter who else was in there.) A sick feeling rose in Nightbeat’s tanks at a half-formed suspicion, but he immediately told himself off for jumping to conclusions prematurely.

Maybe the co-captain was just fantasising… out loud? That made a lot more sense than…

Part of him thought he should just turn around and make Megatron confront his own co-captain once this was all over. Well, maybe _he_ couldn’t make Megatron do anything himself, but Perceptor had ample ball bearings when it came to standing up to the old warlord…

Though, on second thought, maybe Rung was more equipped to handle something like this?

But Nightbeat knew his natural curiosity had won before he’d even rested his hand against the door controls. His need to know had gotten him into trouble many times before, so how bad could it be this time? All he had to do was act surprised, then tell him to do his business elsewhere. Easy enough.

When the door slid open, Rodimus didn’t even notice he was there. He’d drawn out one of the horizontal racks that held the bodies and was currently kneeling on top of it, as deep-seated in his delusions as he was in the frame before him.

“My spike is small in you, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I brought your favourite toy this time. We can play with that afterward.”

Nightbeat was unable to move, and so was unable tear his optics away from the sight before him. There was the other co-captain, leaning over Trailcutter’s corpse, which was surrounded by a halo of Rodimus Stars. _So_ , his processor was quick to deduce from the symbols and what he’d overheard so far, _this isn’t the first time this has happened._

No.

_No._

He wasn’t qualified for this. Was anyone? Rung, maybe.

But, Megatron could deal with his own problems. Yes.

_Anyone_ else would be better at dealing with this, he quickly decided, as his feet finally decided to let him back out of the room. He hobbled back down the narrow corridor, trying to run and yet trying to not throw up at the same time. Unfortunately that didn’t leave him much capacity to try and be quiet.

Just as he turned into the main corridor, at the end of which was the elevator, he heard a voice call out from behind him. “Is someone there?”

Nightbeat had to bite into his lip plate to prevent himself from actually answering ‘no’. He managed to reach the end of the corridor and throw himself against the wall next to the elevator panel. He began repeatedly jabbing the up button. Nightbeat stared up at the floor counter, grinding his dentae with fear and frustration. It was in use _now_ , of all times? And he honestly wasn’t sure whether he could even make it up the stairs.

He glanced back at the corridor he’d just come out of as he fumbled for his communicator. He couldn’t see or hear Rodimus yet, at least. He stopped mashing the elevator button long enough to select Megatron from his contacts.

Megatron let forth a sigh as his face appeared on the screen. “What?”

“I-I’ve found the source of your problem all right. It’s not something I can stop, though. Rodimus ranks too high above me to really do anything!” He was blathering. He couldn’t stop.

Megatron looked mildly concerned now that he’d seen his panicked face and heard the fear in his tone. “What _are_ you talking about?” he asked just as the elevator doors finally opened.

Nightbeat glanced up, suddenly realising that Rodimus had somehow made it halfway down the corridor without him even noticing. Thankfully his interfacing equipment was now tucked away, at least. “Nightbeat?”

“I’ll tell you when I get there!” he said as he slipped inside the elevator and desperately mashed the fifth floor button, then the one to close the doors.

When he glanced down at his communicator, he found Rodimus’ mildly concerned face staring back at him. Nightbeat jerked back instinctively, taking a moment to realise Rodimus had used the captain privileges programmed into his communicator to interfere with their call.

“What’s wrong, Nightbeat?” he asked once they had switched over to a private line. “Do you normally react like this to walking in on two mechs interfacing?”

“I only saw one guy doing any actual interfacing, and in a morgue of all places? I can’t deal!” he spluttered, relieved when the elevator reached its destination. He switched off his communicator as he ran towards the bridge. The screen went dark as Rodimus’ brow lowered.

“What’s going on?” Megatron asked as soon as he spotted him approaching. Nightbeat was relieved when he started striding towards him. He could slow down for a moment.

But it was only now that he realised he didn’t have any solid evidence of what he’d just seen. He couldn’t just go around accusing his co-captain of being delusional without anything to back it up. Even if someone did take him seriously, Rodimus could easily refute it. His processor provided a plethora of potential excuses.

_I was just paying my respects._

_I remembered how badly he wanted a Rodimus Star in life, and he definitely deserves to be awarded one posthumously._

“Y-you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But, uh, you should take a look at Trailcutter’s corpse sometime soon.” Megatron regarded him with a baffled expression. Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to say, either. Rodimus was probably cleaning up said corpse right now.

“If you say so?”

Conspiracy debunker or no, he _really_ wasn’t qualified for this kind of thing. “I just... I need to see a therapist about a nut.”

**Author's Note:**

> ~~Happy Belated Earlyween?~~


End file.
